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Lochte stars, Aust take bronze in Turkey

Australia's cobbled-together men's 4x100m freestyle relay team snatched an unlikely bronze medal at the short course world swimming championships in Istanbul as American superstar Ryan Lochte bagged two gold medals on the opening day.

Tommaso D'Orsogna, Kyle Richardson, Travis Mahoney and Kenneth To, who swam the final leg despite backing up just minutes after his 100m butterfly semi-final, combined to place third with a time of 3min 7.27sec.

Led by London Olympics star Lochte, the US team won gold in 3:06.40, with Italy (3:07.07) second.

Olympian D'Orsogna, who had Australia in second place after a swift first leg, said it was a fine result for a team lacking the likes of James Magnussen, James Roberts and Eamon Sullivan.

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We performed above all of our expectations," said D'Orsogna.

"With a mixture of medley and 200m freestyle swimmers, we had no real sprinters on the team so it was great that we could all come together, step up and come home with the bronze."

Lochte, given the tag of the No.1 American swimmer following Michael Phelps' retirement at the London Olympics, led from start to finish to win the men's 200m freestyle before he teamed up with Anthony Ervin, James Feigen and Matthew Grevers to take out the relay.

Lochte was pushed hard by Germany's world record holder Paul Biedermann in the 200m freestyle, but clocked 1:41.92 to claim his 15th career world short course championships gold medal.

Australian Jarrod Killey hit the wall in 1:44.04 for fourth place in the 200m free final, touching 0.26sec behind bronze medal winner Conor Dwyer from the US.

Australia will be hoping for more medals in the 100m backstroke finals on Thursday night, with women Rachel Goh (57.39) and Grace Loh (57.62) and men Ashley Delaney (50.66) and Robert Hurley (50.70) all advancing.

Commonwealth record holder in the women's 50m breaststroke Sarah Katsoulis progressed through in fifth spot for her final on Thursday.

The US team sit atop the medals standings at the end of day one, with their women adding a third gold by winning the final race of the day, the 4x200m freestyle relay.

Lithuania's 15-year-old Olympic champion Ruta Meilutyte twice broke the championship record on her way to the 50m breaststroke final.